THE FINANCIER
them. Would they loan him money ? On what ? More
city loan which he might get from Stener? Would the
latter get back in time? He would have to pretend to
Stener to have sold the additional city loan in order to get
it. But, also, if he got it, he would have to account for
it later, and that might not be so easy. That was the
arrangement he had always had—to call for as much
city loan as he had sold on 'change. He could mortgage
his house, his real estate; but it all depended on how
much this shrinkage would be. He would have to go on
'change himself along with Arthur Rivers (who was now
out of Tighe & Co. and acting for himself), and see at
what rate he could protect or close out his holdings.
Simpson, Mollenhauer, Butler, and the big banking houses,
because of his shrewd suggestion of the night before, were
probably going to support the market to a certain extent
anyhow, in order to protect their own interests. Under
cover of this, if he could sell enough, even at ten points
off, to realize five hundred thousand dollars he would
come out all right. Could he? He went to bed finally
very late, but he did not stay there long.
Monday, the 9th, opened gray and cheerless. He
was up early with the dawn, shaved and dressed, and
went over, under the gray-green pergola, to his father's
house. The latter was up, also, and stirring about,
for he had not been able to sleep. His gray eyebrows
and gray hair looked rather shaggy and disheveled to
Cowperwood, and his side-whiskers rather pointless and
anything but decorative. The old gentleman's eyes were
tired, and his face was gray. Cowperwood could see that
he was worrying. He looked up from a small, ornate
escritoire of buhl, which Ellsworth had found somewhere,
and which was full of his private papers, and smiled
wanly. He was quietly tabulating a list of his resources
and liabilities, and Cowperwood winced. He hated to
see his father womed, but he could not help it. He
had hoped sincerely, when they built their houses to-
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